Browse by Theme: Livelihoods

Millions are living on the edge of emergency. The number of people living on the edge of emergency has rocketed to 220 million. The world's poorest are paying a high price for the international aid system's failure to address factors keeping them in chronic poverty. With food price rises adding to the problem many people just don’t have enough to eat. Most of them live on the edge because we keep them there. Money raised to respond to emergencies often leaves them worse off than they were before. CARE is demanding that we put a stop to this by calling for a dramatic overhaul of the system which is keeping them trapped.

Our report calls on the international community to give higher priority to recovery and prevention programmes like seed distribution and improved veterinary services so that families can pull themselves back from the edge and be in a stronger position to fight off the next emergency themselves.

The Enhanced Livelihoods in the Mandera Triangle (ELMT) Program was part of USAID’s broader Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoral Areas (RELPA) Program that aimed to support a more effective move from emergency-relief dependency to resilience and sustainable actions that promote long-term economic development in pastoral areas.

This study was commissioned by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Save the Children UK, Save the Children US and CARE International, hereafter referred to as the Core Group. The overall purpose of the study was to provide an overview of the timing, appropriateness and efficacy of interventions in the drought that affected the pastoral lowlands of Ethiopia in 2005/2006.

The study also sought to identify mechanisms to initiate more timely and appropriate interventions to protect and support pastoral livelihoods. The study has identified mechanisms, systems, capacities and institutions which need to be strengthened in order to trigger more timely and appropriate livelihood-based responses to drought. The study also explored donor interest in resourcing these changes.

Over the past thirty years, households in Malawi have been exposed to a large number of shocks that have led to an ongoing decline of rural livelihoods.

More than 60% of the population is experiencing chronic poverty every year and it has some of the worst child malnutrition and mortality rates in Africa.

The highest concentration of poverty is in the southern region of the country where 68.1% of households are poor, compared to the central region with 62.8% and the north with 62.5%.

The current level of poverty is characterized by deep inequality.

The richest 20% of the population in Malawi consumes nearly half of all goods and services, whereas the poorest 20% consume only 6.3%.

CARE adopted the Household Livelihood Security (HLS) framework in 1994.

HLS is an integrated framework that promotes participatory problem analysis and program design, geographically focused programming strategies, coherent and often cross-sector monitoring and evaluation systems, and, importantly, reflective practice and continued learning.

Designed as a resource kit, this document aims to pass on field experience and lessons learned from CARE's rural development initiatives in Zimbabwe.

Agronomic practices are being disseminated without their marketing implications being explicitly taken into account and farmers are receiving little or no advice and support regarding post-harvest activities. The lack of attention paid to marketing issues is problematic, both from a sustainable livelihoods and from a project sustainability perspective. This study seeks to identify a range of feasible intervention options to improve the returns from marketing by Go-Interfish project participants. In addition, it aims to provide information and analysis to inform future marketing-related research and activities by Go-Interfish and CARE.